Mike Vorel discusses Notre Dame defense

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As the Irish get ready for Stanford a few questions still loom as to which Notre Dame defense shows up in Palo Alto.

All eyes will be on Heisman Trophy candidate Bryce Love who leads the nation in rushing yards and touchdowns.

How the Notre Dame defense responds will be the difference in the outcome.

“It's hard to know what to expect from Stanford. Obviously Bryce Love is one of the best players in the country but he’s been dealing with an ankle injury that’s hampered him in recent weeks. That’s the headliner but we don’t know how much we’ll be seeing him. If he’s healthy it's his game and he’ll run away with it, so it’ll be interesting to see which version of Stanford we see," Mike Vorel, ND Insider for South Bend Tribune, said.

"Conversely with the Notre Dame defense, what do we expect to see from them this weekend?" Vahid Sadrzadeh asked.

"We really don’t know. There was a team that was dominant in October but a different team that past three weeks. Of course with Navy it’s always a different challenge, but against Miami, against Wake Forest they struggled. The last three games they have given up an average of 251 rushing yards per game. And against Bryce Love that’s not a great recipe. So we will see if the Notre Dame defense can find its swagger it had earlier in the season," Vorel said.

“Not a friendly environment for Notre Dame. They haven’t won there in a few years. What happens on Saturday?” Vahid asked.

“I don’t know with this team which version of this team will show up at this point. What we do know it’ll be a close game. Every game since 2012 has been a one score game between these two teams. If I had to guess it, I would take Notre Dame in a tight one, but we’ll have to show up and see what happens on Saturday," Vorel said.

Which defense shows up saturday? The one that held opponents to 20 points or less through the first 8 games or the defense that has allowed more than 250 rushing yards per game?